Cycads are dramatic plants and suitable for dry shade and part shade locations.  Many can also be grown in full sunshine although they do sometimes get a little burned.  This beauty was a tiny baby when I purchased it from Loren Whitelock in Los Angeles many years ago.  Loren Whitelock had an extraordinary garden in Eagle Rock and probably the most extensive collection of cycads in the US.  Alas, he has passed on and his collection has been transferred to the Huntington Library Gardens in Pasadena